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Service Returns Gone Wrong, Or Just Hard
Since we're in the middle of running 3 Tour Portraits of service returns to complement ongoing articles, I thought these might interest some. My photos we post in the portraits are generally of great technique, or at least aesthetically pleasing.
Latest Tour Portrait is here:
https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...ehand_returns/
But, there's another side to returning service, when it's just whatever you can come up with under duress. Here are a few examples of top pros struggling.
First, there's Reilly Opelka delivering a quite-literal body serve to Matteo Berrettini. The Italian crowded the baseline, so Reilly hit 140 mph right at him and struck Matteo in the shoulder. That's what I call a serve into the body. Opelka said ~ "If anybody crowds me I'm going to go right at him. Unless it's Alex De Minaur."
filedata/fetch?id=93348&d=1618161284&type=thumb
You can also see an aniGIF of this at this link, along with one of Fed dealing with a somewhat similar body serve from John Isner.
Here's a photo I titled "How do you return a 134 mph serve at your face? Any way you can." It's Novak returning vs Milos Raonic in their title match at Indian Wells 2018.
filedata/fetch?id=93349&d=1618161285&type=thumb
And here's Novak a few years earlier trying to reach a kick from Juan Martin del Potro. Indian Wells courts are so gritty, players than hit big kick can literally ace people by hitting over their outstretched rackets. I've seen Ivan Ljubicic do that to Rafa and Isner to Novak. While Novak beat Isner, he lost this match to Delpo. Wish the big guy could get healthy.
filedata/fetch?id=93351&d=1618161285&type=thumb
And, here's Fed fending off a 130+ mph serve from Tomas Berdych while standing inside the baseline. Should come with hazardous duty pay.
filedata/fetch?id=93350&d=1618161285&type=thumb
May you have many pleasant returns and remember, like even the best, sometimes you just have to ad lib and hope for the best.
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Latest Tour Portrait is here:
https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...ehand_returns/
But, there's another side to returning service, when it's just whatever you can come up with under duress. Here are a few examples of top pros struggling.
First, there's Reilly Opelka delivering a quite-literal body serve to Matteo Berrettini. The Italian crowded the baseline, so Reilly hit 140 mph right at him and struck Matteo in the shoulder. That's what I call a serve into the body. Opelka said ~ "If anybody crowds me I'm going to go right at him. Unless it's Alex De Minaur."
filedata/fetch?id=93348&d=1618161284&type=thumb
You can also see an aniGIF of this at this link, along with one of Fed dealing with a somewhat similar body serve from John Isner.
Here's a photo I titled "How do you return a 134 mph serve at your face? Any way you can." It's Novak returning vs Milos Raonic in their title match at Indian Wells 2018.
filedata/fetch?id=93349&d=1618161285&type=thumb
And here's Novak a few years earlier trying to reach a kick from Juan Martin del Potro. Indian Wells courts are so gritty, players than hit big kick can literally ace people by hitting over their outstretched rackets. I've seen Ivan Ljubicic do that to Rafa and Isner to Novak. While Novak beat Isner, he lost this match to Delpo. Wish the big guy could get healthy.
filedata/fetch?id=93351&d=1618161285&type=thumb
And, here's Fed fending off a 130+ mph serve from Tomas Berdych while standing inside the baseline. Should come with hazardous duty pay.
filedata/fetch?id=93350&d=1618161285&type=thumb
May you have many pleasant returns and remember, like even the best, sometimes you just have to ad lib and hope for the best.
#
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